Order of Illumination
Our powers were granted in the bleakest hour, by the darkest of powers. It falls to us to bring light from that darkness, and promote the spark of knowledge rather than the fires of damnation. - Most Blessed and Vigilant Magus Severin Copernicum, Founder of the Order of Illumination In times of war, when noble attentions turn to dangers abroad, dark things stir in unwatched places. Necromancy, infernalism, heresy, depraved cults, such foul enticements seek out the weak of spirit, tempting the unwitting with the promises of evils both inscrutable and ancient. However, one group combats these foul temptations by waging a secret war in the name of Morrow, operating outside the forgiving strictures of his church, and condemning evil with powers no priest could control. They are the Order of Illumination.No Quarter #2 Members of the Order of Illumination, often merely called the Illuminated, are wizards from diverse walks of life who embrace varied goals and utilize numerous sometimes reckless methods in their upright efforts. Still, despite their varied paths, all Illuminated share a neigh-unshakable faith in the virtuousness of their works, the magic that girds them, and most assuredly in Morrow's divine light. History Severin Copernicun was born in 202 AR, the first year of the Iron Kingdoms era and exactly a century after the ascension of Corben. He was the third son of a prestigious Ceryl merchant family, and the customs of the time mandated that well-to-do youths of Severin's birth rank undergo grooming for positions within the Church of Morrow. However, his seminary training swiftly bowed to his burgeoning passion and aptitude for the arcane. He mentored under a pious wizard who had offered his services to the Church. In 226 AR Severin gained admittance into the Fraternal Order of Wizardry, headquartered in his home city of Ceryl. His membership doubled and amplified his knowledge of the arcane arts, yet all the while Severin retained his deep spiritual connection to Morrow and the Church. Friendly and patient where most of his peers and instructors proved brusque and self-concerned, the pious young wizard gathered a significant group of colleagues, and eventually, eager apprentices throughout his studies. In the bleak month of Casteus in 233 AR, Severin's late night research led to a terrible discovery: several prestigious members of the Fraternal Order his peers and teachers alike conducting foul infernal rites in the heart of the Fraternal Stronghold. Reporting his horror to Vicar Calverius Bantren, one of his mentors in faith and devotion to Morrow, Severin led the servants of the Lord of Light back to the Fraternal Stronghold and aided in purging the heretics. Thus began a witch hunt that would consume Ceryl for months. Personally led by Vicar Bantren, the resulting inquisition pierced to the heart of the Fraternal Order of Wizards and implicated several of its highest-ranking members. Raiding the Fraternal Stronghold's halls, outlying libraries, and the homes of influential wizards throughout Ceryl, the inquisitors exposed a conspiracy involving dozens. Severin's horrific disillusionment with the Fraternal Order made him a stalwart aid to Vicar Bantren, his magic both revealing infernalists and saving many wrongfully accused of heresy. Though his actions won him the gratitude of some wizards who might have been tempted down a dark path, the Fraternal Order — its reputation permanently scarred by his acts — banished Severin as a betrayer and spy. After months of investigation, executions, book burning, and sometimes rampant accusations, Vicar Bantren decreed the Fraternal Order of Wizardry cleansed of infernal influences. Severin Copernicun, however, found himself adrift. A near fatal encounter in his home with a razor-covered magical construct also made it more than obvious that certain wizards in Ceryl believed exile from the Fraternal Order was not a stiff enough punishment for Severin s acts. The scandal and disruption his acts had caused made him no more appealing to the Order of the Golden Crucible. Thus, both hopeful and fearful, Severin left Ceryl for Caspia, bringing with him a group of friends, apprentices, and allied mages disenchanted by the Fraternal Order's scandalous secrets, determined to create a new order bereft of the fraternity's corruption and elitism. Upon reaching Caspia, the Exordium granted Severin and his followers both protection and their sponsorship, providing funds to create an autonomous order of arcane practitioners within the Sancteum. Humbly accepting, the Exordium anointed Severin Copernicun as the Church of Morrow's first Most Blessed and Vigilant Magus. Committed never to suffer the corruption of the Fraternal Order of Wizardry, Copernicun swore he and his followers would study magic as tempered by the tenants of Morrow and bend their power to hunting dark magic in all its permutations. Within the heart of the Sancteum, Severin Copernicun laid the foundation for a union of wizards he christened the Order of Illumination. For the past 350 years, the Order of Illumination has combined the tenants of Morrow's faith with arcane research and implementation. Through the centuries the order has weathered war, oppression, and revolution, ever managing to spread its influence throughout the southern nations of western Immoren, guarding itself against internal corruption,and repressing instances of heresy and dark magic. Today, including apprentices and non caster adjacents, the Order of Illumination numbers its members in the low hundreds. High Vigilant Peer Venessari Marpethorne guides the interests of the order from the grand Illuminated Library, the head quarters of the order in the Sancteum. Nearly sixty years old, Marpethorne manages both the order's internal affairs and its international interests from within the Cygnar Royal Assembly. Recently she has advocated a swift, diplomatic truce with Khador, as hostilities have made communication with numerous holdings of the order nearly impossible. Rumors suggest personal reasons might also influence the high vigilant peer's actions, for her headstrong and often socially embarrassing niece Lysimache was adventuring in Llael at the time of its invasion. While the high vigilant peer deals with the majority of the Order of Illumination's farthest reaching objectives, a mysterious court of eight vigilant peers assess rumors of heresy and foul magic, dispatch Illuminated peers and adjacents on specific missions, and mange the internal policing of the order. This court judges evidence of infernalism and other dark arcana and decides how best to act. The vigilant peers appointed to this court supposedly change frequently through a process of selection that remains a secret to all but the order's highest ranking members. While most suspect they are appointed by the high vigilant peer, some rumors suggest that the will of the Exordium might hold greater power in such decisions. Others posit that those who serve as vigilant peers must leave the order after their terms (of indeterminate length) expire, for exposure to the deepest secrets of heresy invariably taints their thinking. Regardless, the eight vigilant peers serve as the heads of the order's fight to root out heresy. To defend both their lives and their virtue, these wizards are protected by layers of magical guards and illusions, making it nearly impossible to approach or attempt to discern the identity of a vigilant peer without his knowing. Commonly, low ranking Illuminated are sent to retrieve information for the vigilant peers, but when evidence of heresy proves irrefutable, the court regularly employs groups of more powerful members and adjacents, trusted non-wizard allies of the order often armed with magical and alchemical weapons suited to their missions. Should a threat prove beyond the abilities of their agents, the vigilant peers might petition the Exordium directly for aid in the form of priestly support or the loan of relics from the Order of Keeping. Enemies of the Order As one might expect of any group with such an aggressive mission, the Order of Illumination counts numerous powers among its enemies. oremost are the infernals stalking the shadows of western Immoran and the Thamarite cultists summoning them, but all witches and their ilk are priority targets. To the Illuminated, witches are any spellcasters who practice forbidden necromantic arts, bargain with infernals, embrace the dark tenants of Thamar, or otherwise bear the mark of foul magic. Though members of the order are sensitive enough to the pulse of magic to realize that not all who exhibit sorcerous powers are witches, all sorcerers are held in suspicion and watched for signs of corruption. Of late the greatest threat to arise to the attention of the order is sorceress Alexia Ciannor, niece of Prelate Pandor Dumas. The necromantic protege wields a sword of tremendous power — one that is, in the order‘s estimation, the most powerful evil relic on the face of western Immoran. The sword's threat is not expunged by its recent use helping to fullfulling a Morrowan prophecy. As a result the order has dispatched dozens of Illuminated with full support of trusted ad acents to hunt Alexia. So far, none have been able to track her movements successfully. Perhaps the order's most feared enemies are those they worry may come from within. Born from a fraternity festering in its own corruption, the Illuminated have sworn never to fall to such depravity. As such, all members undergo rigorous and regular magical testing to assure not just continued loyalty, but to verify their continued virtuous thinking. Such testing commonly occurs once a year but may be enlisted more frequently after particularly harrowing missions against infernal forces. These tests are administered by three interrogators: an Illuminated of superior rank to the one being tested, one of the tested's peers, and a priest of the clergy of Morrow. A test is conducted over the course of an hour long interview held under the magical scrutiny of a host of divination spells. After an hour, the subject of the test is dismissed and the test's administrators meet in private council. The decision of this council is not immediately provided to the tested, but rather it is posted and announced publicly the next morning along with the results of all other tests. Testing verdicts take one of two simple forms: "innocent" or "guilty", with the consequences of a guilty verdict being swift and uncompromising: expulsion from the order. Those guilty of other crimes may be turned over to the Church or local authorities for further punishment. Bastions of the Illuminated Embraced within Morrow's holy Sancteum in Caspia, the Grand Illuminated Library is the heart and head uarters of the Order of Illumination. Mere yards from Morrow's Seminary College, the Grand Illuminated Library rises as one of the tallest structures in the Sancteaum. It bears the seal of the order's emblem, the Radiance of Morrow, and the symbol of Ascendant Corbin. Aside from the decorative iconography, the library is a relatively plain structure. Its slate and marble walls are broken only on one front by its main entrance and a towering stained glass window depicting Asc. Corbin rising several stories above it. Within, the main hall of the Frand Illuminated Library appears more like a cathedral than a library. Its walls are adorned with Morrowan scripture and illuminated scenes from the Enkheiridon. Bookshelves of arcane theorems, alchemical formulae, holy writings, and other esoteric works fill the gap between religious masterpieces. Spaced between the airy stacks, pews and a raised dais complete with an ornate altar make the hall as much a sanctuary and meeting place as a library. Spiral staircases at each corner of the hall rise to the library's middle foors dedicated to magical study, alchemical research, and personal worship. Farther above through passages only accessible by magical keys are the offices, meeting halls, and personal chambers of the vigilant peers and the high vigilant peer. Besides these doors, it is also said numerous other chambers are hidden below the tower. In these whispered halls rest heavily warded vaults defending some of the order's most powerful magical relics and imprisoning numerous foul artifacts confiscated from heretics and cursed sites throughout western Immoren. These vaults are largely kept a secret in order not to further tensions between the wizards and the Order of Keeping. Aside from this arcane storehouse, rumors hold that supposedly converted fugitives formerly in the service of Vinter Raelthorne the Elder's Inquisition now ply their trade, hidden from public eyes. Few dare even hint at what employ these ex-inquisitors might find, but their merciless service to the former king suggests few would possess greater experience making heretics reveal their secrets. While the Grand Illuminated Library remains embraced within the Sancteum in Caspia, the order has public holdings within Corvis, Highgate, and － in seemingly purposeful defiance of the Fraternal Order of Wizards － in Ceryl. Besides these bastions, the society also keeps well stocked but secret redoubts most notably in Merin, Skrovenberg, and Elsinberg. In the most extreme fringes of the order‘s influence, these holdouts are nothing more than hidden reserves of food and equipment, hidden within hollows or under floorboards marked with the symbol of Ascendant Corben. These holdings, often referred to as Illuminated Halls, commonly hold arcane libraries, laboratories, and arsenals with little staff. Besides supporting Illuminated on specific missions, all Illuminated Halls work toward a single concerted aim as determined by the order's headquarters and circumstances unique to the region. Sources * Iron Kingdoms Character Guide Full-Metal Fantasy Volume 1, pg. 299-300 Category:Church of Morrow Category:Religion Category:Organisations